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Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Shrinking Russia

Remember how Vladamir Putin saved Russia? Let’s try to. Foreign direct investment in Russia is expected to drop by 50% this year - in one year! Bloomberg It’s not working, Mr President-for-life Putin.

He got a lot of respect by hosting the Olympics. At the cost of $50 billion! He paid more than the combined cost of ALL other winter olympic games. Based on what we know about Putin, he paid the big bucks to his buddies. And he followed his Olympics by sending tanks into Ukraine and everyone saw that also.

Everything is going down in Russia = Their stock market is down. Their currency the ruble is down, despite the government spending billions to support it. Putin claims credit for everything. Yes.

But I really wanted to post this cartoon: Arriving at the exclusive G-8 club, he is informed. "Sorry, the club members tell me your appearance doesn’t comply with the dress code.” And sure enough, it really happened: The other members kicked him out. The exclusive club is again the G-7; he is out and isolated. [Sorry, but I don’t recall the source.]